Maternity Leave
by Rose Stetson
Summary: Based on Ripple Effect Alt. Janet realizes that Sam needs some help...
1. Janet

**Maternity Leave**

"_Ripple Effect"/Alternate Reality "Fourth Horseman"_

_Sam/Jack pairing and Daniel/Janet pairing_

Dr. Janet Fraiser walked into the lab. She was shocked to find eighteen Samantha Carters in the same room. She could almost feel the brainpower around her. She had to laugh when one of the Carters walked around, offering coffee to all of her counterparts.

One of the Samantha Carters was talking to one of the others, and turned as she saw Janet walk in. Her face went pale, and she hurried to the door. "Janet?"

"Hi."

Sam was so shocked to see her. "Janet, you're…"

"Dead? Yeah, Daniel told me already."

"You saw Daniel?"

"And Teal'c. But they never told me where General O'Neill is."

Sam smiled. "He's in Washington. He was appointed as the Head of Homeworld Security."

"Our General Hammond…"

"He retired recently in our reality."

"Ah." There was a brief moment of awkwardness as Sam tried to comprehend the fact that her best friend was standing right in front of her. "So, is there anything going on between you and…"

Sam chuckled. "Only you would ask that question."

"So?"

Sam motioned for her to get out of the crowded lab. "Sorry, I was starting to get a headache. One of the other Samantha Carters went to MIT. She is spending all her time telling me that I was missing out. On what, she's never been able to convince me of, but…I can only guess that it's the Royal Geekdom."

"She's the one with the glasses?"

"Uh-huh."

"So, about you and…the absent General?"

Sam smiled. "You're not going to give up, are you?"

"No."

"All right. Before Jack moved to Washington, the team went up to his cabin to go fishing…well, you know…"

"Sam, I'm begging you to give me the details!"

"All right. We're sort of…dating right now."

"As in, you'd like to be engaged, but you're not sure how people will view that?"

Sam turned an embarrassed look to her friend. "You…well, I just got out of a relationship, and, I'm not sure that…this is a good time to say anything about…us."

"You're still worried about regulations, huh?"

"Sort of."

"Don't be. This is your one chance at life."

"So, what about you?" Sam asked, changing the subject. "Are you seeing anybody?"

Janet sobered up. "I didn't realize how hard it would be."

"What?"

"Daniel and I…"

"Ah."

"Well, then, I saw your Daniel, and…"

"He still secretly blames himself for your death."

"I noticed."

"Yeah, well…"

"He did that with Sha're, and Sarah, and now me."

"Yeah."

There was a long silence while the two women contemplated the vastness of the universe.

"I need to get back if I'm going to find a way for you to go back to your world." Sam said.

"Yeah…go ahead."

"But first, who did I…get involved with? Martouf already told me that it wasn't him…"

"Unscheduled Off-World Activation!"

She ran off, and Janet got an idea. A wicked idea.


	2. Plotting

**Previously on Stargate SG-1:**

"_Unscheduled Off-World Activation!"_

_She ran off, and Janet got an idea. A wicked idea._

**And now, the conclusion:**

Janet hurried down the halls and ran into her Daniel. "Janet!"

She smiled. "Hi, Daniel. I'm sorry I don't have much time, but I need your help."

She hurried down the corridor with Daniel on her tail. "Janet! What are you doing?"

She turned. "Daniel, what did Sam need in order to become who she is today?"

He looked at her, confused. "What do you mean?"

"What did she finally have to do before she would let Jack into her life?"

"Oh, I thought you were talking about the fact that they just had a baby…sorry. Uh…she finally saw it after she came back from the Prometheus. Why?"

"The Sam in this reality isn't sure that she and Jack are meant to be together, so I was thinking. Maybe, we could…take a poll."

"A poll?"

"Of the other Samantha Carters. Who's with whom."

"Right…"

"Daniel!"

He turned to his wife. "I'm sorry. I just…are we sure they're not going to mind being treated as a bunch of test subjects?"

"Carters band together." She said, smiling as she ducked into the room full of Carters.

Daniel thought he had lost her until he saw her stand up on one of the desks. "Samantha Carters, I have a question to ask all of you, and to avoid duplicate information in my experiment, I would like to do this in the form of a poll. Any problems?"

For once, all of the Carters looked confused.

"Your fellow Samantha Carter is in trouble, and I think you'd all like to help her out. Am I right?"

She got a room full of head nods, and she grinned at Daniel.

"All right. Here's my question. This can be answered by a simple hand-raising. How many of you are married?"

Out of the eighteen Carters in the room, there were twelve hands that went up.

"All right, keep your hands up. This next part is just for you, then. Dr. Jackson, did you get that number? Twelve married."

Daniel quickly reached for a pen and paper and jotted down the number twelve next to the heading married.

"Of those of you who are married, how many of you are married to Jack O'Neill?"

Eleven hands stayed up in the air. "Dr. Jackson, that would be eleven married to Jack O'Neill."

He swiftly put in parenthesis- eleven to Jack O'Neill.

"Now, you may put your hands down. To the Samantha Carter who put her hand down, who are you married to?"

"Daniel Jackson." She replied, simply.

Daniel nearly choked, as did Janet.

"May I ask how that came to be?"

"Jack was killed in the line of duty a few years ago, and Daniel helped me raise our kids. Anyway, things…progressed, and now I'm married to Daniel."

"So, you were at one point involved with Jack O'Neill."

She nodded.

"Okay…that's one point for Jack. You were married to him, weren't you?"

She nodded.

"And another for Daniel Jackson."

The sheet now looked something like this:

Married: (One Samantha Carter was married twice)

To Jack O'Neill: 12

To Daniel Jackson: 1

"Now, for the rest of you, there should be six of you, right?" Janet looked to Daniel for confirmation and he nodded. "How many of you are or have been in any way involved with Jack O'Neill?"

Five hands were raised- including one slightly pregnant Samantha Carter. "Janet, I have kind of a unique story." She said.

"All right. We'll include that in the poll, if you wouldn't mind sharing."

"Of course not. When Jack's clone was retrieved by the Asgard, I was impregnated. We think that Loki performed some unsanctioned experiments with artificial insemination and that I was one of his test subjects. We're expecting twins in another six months."

Janet's eyes widened. "The Asgard?"

"Yep. Anyway, we're now engaged, but it wasn't without its…challenges." She said.

Janet exchanged a look with Daniel. "I understand, but we have to continue with the poll. All right, so…how many of you who have your hands raised are engaged to Jack O'Neill?"

Two hands were raised.

"That's two for being engaged to Jack." She said for Daniel's benefit. "And dating?"

The other three hands were raised.

"That's three for dating Jack." She turned to the one Samantha Carter who hadn't raised her hand to being involved with Jack. "And who are you involved with?"

"You're making the assumption that I'm involved with someone." She said, her arms crossed.

"So, that's one for entirely single?" Janet asked.

"No. I just said you were making the assumption."

"For crying out loud!" One of the Carters said. "We don't have time for this. If you're not single, just tell us who you're involved with!"

"Obviously one of the ones who's married to Jack," Daniel said, under his breath.

"Pete Shanahan. I'm engaged to Pete Shanahan." She said.

Daniel looked at Janet. Who the hell is Pete Shanahan? They mouthed at the same time.

"Well, thank you for your help. I'm sure we've got all the information we need now. Hope you all enjoy your lives with your Jacks. And your others." Then, Janet stepped off the table, onto the chair and Daniel helped her down to the floor.

"I tell you, if this doesn't convince her, I don't know what will." Janet said, smirking as she looked at the list.

Married: (One Samantha Carter was married twice)

To Jack O'Neill: 12

To Daniel Jackson: 1

Engaged:

To Jack O'Neill: 2 (One pregnant due to Asgard interference, but that's another story…)

To Pete Shanahan: 1

Dating:

Jack O'Neill: 3

"I just hope you know what you're doing, dear." Daniel said, as he hurried out of the room at the sight of the resident Samantha Carter.


	3. Research Results

"Bye, Daniel." Sam said as one of the Daniel Jacksons hurried past her.

"Bye, Sam." She could have sworn that he had added a "Good luck...you're going to need it" under his breath, but she couldn't exactly be sure.

"Oh, Sam! The one that just entered, and is resident to this reality!" Janet said, waving her over to the desk, when she about twelve different heads turned to face her.

"Okay..." She approached the desk. "You come up with something?"

"Yep."

"Great. What are we looking at?" She asked as she flipped open the laptop.

"Actually, that's not where the information is. It's a little side-note to our research. You know, blow off a little steam. I thought I might help your... Dr. Lam with the strict schedule for all of you Carters who just won't take a break."

Sam smiled. "Okay, what'd you do, take a poll of who's married to whom?"

Janet grinned sheepishly. "Actually..."

Sam paled. "Oh, you didn't!"

"My Daniel helped."

"That's why he was running away, wasn't it?"

"Actually, I don't know why he was running away, but it certainly could have had something to do with my...research."

"All right hand it over. I suppose I should at least take a gander at what you've got."

"Go ahead. Take all the gander you want..."

Sam flashed an unamused look at Janet who placed one hand on her hip. "You know, you could at least be grateful for the help. It's not everyday that a scientist can look at her love life as a simple probability match."

"Excuse me? I told you my love life has nothing wrong with it."

"Except the fact that you and Jack are still scared stiff about taking it...to the next level."

"Our level is just fine, thank you!"

All of the Samantha Carters turned to look at the two bickering women. Suddenly, she heard one of the Samantha Carters mutter, "More like sub-level if I know anything about them..."

Sam blushed. "So, everyone knows the status of my love life?"

"Well, not exactly...they just know that you're...a little confused right now."

"Great! Just what I wanted my...counterparts...to think about me."

"That's okay, they already thought you were clueless, given the fact that you're still on the base and it's Friday night."

"Hey...maybe I just couldn't get out of being on duty tonight! Besides, how did you know that it's Friday night?"

"The calendar on the wall and the clock on the desk. And you can't give me that bull about being on duty. I KNOW your Jack is a Major General and is your boss's boss." Janet grinned evilly. "I can get some pretty impressive things out of your Daniel."

"Now, that's just manipulative! And EVIL!" Sam said, folding up the list and putting it in the pocket of her BDUs. "So, let's get back to the problem at hand. We already decided that it's a tear in the space-time continuum. Any ideas of how we can fix it?"

* * *

A few hours later, Janet was in the cafeteria when her Daniel approached her. "What's it going to take for this woman to listen to reason!" Janet demanded of her husband.

"I don't know, an act of God, maybe?" He asked facetiously as he dove into his chocolate pudding.

"Which god?" Janet asked sassily, taking a sexy bite of carrot cake.

"Well, it sure as hell isn't going to be Apophis. Now, is it? Or Cronus, Hathor, Ra, Sokar, Yu, Anubis, Ba'al...the list is endless. Now, Thor, on the other hand..." Daniel replied, dryly.

"Oh, so no response, to my attempt at seduction?" Janet asked.

He winked. "Maybe, and maybe not."

She raised an eyebrow. "Is that a challenge?"

"Not in the middle of the cafeteria." Daniel said, faking a look of shock at her sultry look. "Somehow plastic chairs just aren't condusive to romance."

Janet giggled, despite herself. "And your idea about contacting Thor is a good one."

"What? Where did that come from?"

"Sorry, I'm kind of on one train of thought. I just can't handle thinking about our relationship when I know that Sam doesn't have one."

Daniel sobered up alongside his wife. "Not our Sam. An Alternate Sam. Our Sam just had a baby girl. She and Jack are very happy."

"I know, but...I can't help but think that in the grand scheme of things, we're going to owe them Earth's survival. They offered me the cure for the Prior plague."

"Oh...that's still on your mind, isn't it?"

She turned a somewhat helpless look to him. "How can it not be? I mean, I can keep my mind occupied with setting Sam up with Jack, but...in the end, I'm still just worrying about whether or not it's going to be too late for Earth. If we even get back at all."

Daniel looked at her. "Come here." He said, opening up a space next to him so that she could cuddle up to him. She smiled. "Thanks, but I'm gonna go see what I can do to help the Carters."

Daniel watched her walk away, somewhat dejected in his own right. She had refused to open up to him. It hadn't been this bad since Cassie had been sick with that Hanka disease that had begun to transform her. He closed his eyes. They'd get out of this one too, wouldn't they?

_Props to Lee Davies...she insisted, I tell ya! J/K!_


	4. Epilogue

**Epilogue:**

They had finally done it! They had finally figured out what had caused the tear in the time-space continuum and then fixed it! This was great news for all of the SG-1 (and other) teams that had been stranded in this reality for the last few days. And it gave Janet Frasier-Jackson a newfound hope for her reality. But now, it was time to say good-bye. She had really come to like this reality's Sam just as much as she loved her reality's Sam as a sister. The General had called her team to the Gate room.

"Have all the other teams left sir?" She asked.

"You're the last ones to go." He replied.

"It was nice working with you again Sam." Martouf said, kissing Sam's cheek. "Your presence has been sorely missed on our team.

"Just out of curiosity…where did I go?" Sam asked.

Janet smiled as she looked at her husband. "Maternity leave." Then, she gave Sam a hug. "You married Jack." She whispered.

Landry coughed as Sam turned beet-red. "We have something for you. The cure to the priors plague."

"Thank you, General."

The yellow case was handed to one of her team members and then, she stood to face this reality's Daniel. He smiled as he gave her a hug, almost refusing to let go.

"Its good to see you again." He said.

"You too." She said, seeing her husband's smile of approval as she returned the tight embrace.

Then, Teal'c approached her. "May it not be the last time."

Janet had to wipe away a few tears. "Well…we'd love to stay…but we have a planet to save."

Then, they stepped through the Stargate. As they did so, Sam watched her late friends- almost family- walk away from her. "Bye."

Only after they had been gone for a few minutes did she open the note left by Janet.

Married: (One Samantha Carter was married twice)  
To Jack O'Neill: 12  
To Daniel Jackson: 1

Engaged:  
To Jack O'Neill: 2 (One pregnant due to Asgard interference, but that's another story…)  
To Pete Shanahan: 1

Dating:  
Jack O'Neill: 3

She left the Gate Room, feeling more hopeful and certainly more motivated.

* * *

Janet Fraiser, Daniel Jackson, Cameron Mitchell and Martouf arrived in their Gate room 3.4 seconds later. General Jack O'Neill and his wife, Samantha, met them at the Gate. 

"What the hell happened, Doctor?"

"You were gone for three days." Sam said. "And you didn't respond to our attempts at communication.

Janet smiled. "We went to an alternate reality, sir. And because of that, we have the cure to the prior's plague." She said, gesturing to the yellow case that Cameron carried.

Jack looked suitably impressed. "We'll debrief after you relieve Dr. Warner."

She nodded and walked out of the Gate room, but she stopped. "Oh, Sam…I think you're going to help your counter-part find what she's looking for."

Sam looked at her friend, closely. "What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing." Janet said, sharing a knowing look with her husband after watching the way that the couple looked at one another, perplexed. "Nothing at all."


End file.
